By Sara Quam
Census 2000 tallies leave Rock County - like most others in southwest Minnesota - with fewer people than 10 years ago.
The county's final count was 9,721. That's 85 fewer than the 1990 census. The population is largely an adult one, too, with 7,163 ages 18 and older.
Hills ended up with 565 people, down from 607 in 1990; Beaver Creek was up just one person for a final count of 250.
Steen's population was one of a few bright spots in the census. Most of Rock County felt a population dip in either 2000 or 1990. Steen, however, holds the honor of being the only town to steadily increase its population since 1980: going from 153 to 176 in 1990 and to 182 in 2000.
Marlin Elbers, Steen councilman, joked that the city will have even more bragging rights if its population reaches the 200 mark.
"It's just a nice little town to live in. The last number of years there's been more families coming and going. I've lived in Steen all my life, and there are some people I don't know," Elbers said.
He guessed that some people find less-expensive housing and the strong church good reasons to move to Steen. The proximity to Sioux Falls and Luverne are also positives for the small community.
Overall, Minnesota's population rose by 12.4 percent during the decade to 4,919,479. The largest growth occurred in the suburbs around the Twin Cities, taking up almost 45 percent of the state's entire population.
Rock County is still a homogeneous corner of the state, with 97 percent of the population being white. Statewide, the number of minority citizens doubled, rising to 582,336 or 11.8 percent.